With ATV seemingly ditching idea of having a guest host it was left to regular host Derek Hobson to host his second All Winners Show of the series. He was joined by professional panellists Shaw Taylor, Bryan Blackburn, John Hamp and Noel Edmonds.

• 

• 

• 

• 

They watched the following six acts that had won their earlier shows;

• Cops (five-piece group) from Norwich – Show 4.21
• Our Kid (four-piece harmony group) from Liverpool – Show 4.20
• Paul & Avis (vocal duo) from Walsall – Show 4.19
• Simone (vocalist) from Exeter – Show 4.18
• Johnny Hammond (comedian) from Hartlepool – Show 4.17
• Chris North & Jill (comedy illusionists) from Norwich – Show 4.16

They were joined by guest act Trevor Chance, returning to New Faces, for the first time since he won the pilot show back in 1973.

Walsall siblings Paul & Avis opened the show with their second Daniel Boone number of the series having won through their original show with another of his songs.  The song they chose for this appearance was the upbeat and catchy Keep Movin’, which they released as a single the Monday after the show was aired.

They had switched their red suits from the first show for blue ones in a similar style and delivered a cheery, bouncy and confident rendition of the track while playing bass and guitar.

Shaw Taylor kicked off the comments by saying that he felt that Avis was displaying most the personality of the pair and that he’d like to see a little bit more of Paul, who he felt had a cheeky smile that he could have used more.  In fact Shaw had so much to say that only Noel Edmonds was asked to add anything to his comments.  Noel thought they were ‘refreshing’ but felt they had a ‘market identity problem’ and he wondered just who was going to buy their records.

Speciality act Chris North & Jill were next to perform and also chose matching blue outfits.  In the three minutes they were allowed they managed to successfully perform two illusions.  The first one saw Jill tied to a post before Chris removed the seemingly tied knots with a single tug.

The second illusion featured an Iron Maiden style cabinet, which Chris referred to as his Margaret Thatcher, which Jill climbed into and Chris pushed the rack of spikes ‘through’ Jill and out of the front of the cabinet.  Chris then opened the small window in the box to reveal Jill’s face. Jill announced her bra had come undone, which Chris proved by fishing around inside the box an pulling it out.  Of course the spikes were then removed and Jill was released unharmed and ‘fully’ clothed.

Returning to Derek Hobson for the judges comments he began by confirmed we had just seen ‘Chris North and his able bodied assistant, very able bodied, in fact all of the men wanted to take their bow ties off.’  He then asked Bryan Blackburn what he thought of the act.  He said he liked to see magic acts with ‘intriguing apparatus’ and he thought ‘Jill had very intriguing apparatus.’  John Hamp knew the act as he’d used them on Wheel Tappers and Shunters, where they had fourteen minutes instead of the three they were just allowed, and he said they were ‘a very, very strong act.’  Shaw Taylor said he would have liked Jill to come out of the cabinet and ‘drink a glass of water and then leak like a watering can.’

The third act of the show was comedian Johnny Hammond who kept the blue suit theme going and delivered a series of story style jokes that the audience seemed to love.  He did take a slight swipe at regular New Faces judge Tony Hatch over his dislike of Irish jokes.  Johnny claimed ‘Tony Hatch isn’t with us tonight, he’s in hospital suffering from megalomania’ and then seemed to mutter ‘little bastard’ under his breath as the audience laughed at the gag.

After his short run of gags he sang a version of the song If but he added his own echo and commentary to the song before launching into a vocally perfect rendition of the final verse.

In handing over the judges Derek Hobson said that Johnny had delivered about ten different routines during the day and then asked the judges what they thought of his routine on the night.  John Hamp, who had produced The Comedians for the previous three years was impressed with Johnny’s original material and said ‘his delivery was terrific.’ Bryan Blackburn called him ‘a great spontaneous comedian.’

Young Liverpool group Our Kid were next to perform and they reprised the song that won them the unanimous verdict of the judging panels when they secured their All Winners spot.  Breaking the blue dress code seen so far they were dressed in smart matching black suits with red buttonholes and they delivered a slightly wooden choreographed performance of You Just Might See Me Cry.

Derek Hobson commented that the combined age of the act added up to twenty years less than Arthur Askey before handing over to Noel Edmonds for his expert view of the act.  Noel said he was ‘slightly worried about the Thunderbirds reject style of moving’ and added that he ‘kept looking for the strings.’ Shaw Taylor agreed with Noel and added he thought they were ‘a little bit too professional for their age’ and added he would ‘like to see their natural personalities come across.’

The fifth act of the show was Simone who performed the upbeat Kiki Dee number How Glad I Am.  Shaw Taylor was on the panel of the show that Simone won to book her place on this show and he kicked off the comments by saying that nothing he’d seen would detract him from thinking that ‘she is really going to go places’ and that she had ‘this knack of making her voice another instrument in the orchestra.’  John Hamp commented that as this was only the second time she’d been in a TV studio her use of the cameras was very impressive and said she was ‘terrific.’

Before the final act Derek Hobson asked the Viewers panel, consisting of David Starr (London), Christine Gill (Lancashire), Phyllis Mainwaring (Rochester, Kent), Sid Marquis (Liverpool), which of the five acts they had seen so far they liked.

• 

• 

• 

• 

David liked Simone as it was his kind of music as did Christine, but she preferred her Gladys Knight number from when she last appeared. Phyllis likes Our Kid and said that ‘whoever had produced them should take some of the credit’ and Liverpool judge Sid also backed the Liverpool group saying that in time he thought that the group would be better than The Osmonds.

The final act to perform for the judges were the winning act from the previous week, Cops, who sang Lady Put The Light On.

Bryan Blackburn kicked off the comments by saying he’d seen Cops on the show the previous week and was ‘very arrested by their performance.’ John Hamp said they were ‘a very good group, above average’ but he felt they had been overshadowed by some of the other acts.  Noel Edmonds wasn’t convinced the group were enjoying themselves or believed in the song and suggested the needed more conviction.

While the panel reflected on their scores Derek Hobson introduced guest act and the first ever winner of New Faces on network television, Trevor Chance.  Dressed in a brief yellow jacket and white trousers Trevor performed three songs in his seven minute set.  The first two formed a Liza Minnelli medley of Cabaret and Maybe This Time.

His third song saw him take a seat on a stool to deliver the Bacharach and David number A House Is Not A Home, which had been a hit for Dionne Warwick.

It was then back to the judges to reveal the scores they were awarding each act.  Each judge scored out of one hundred marks giving an overall maximum possible score of four hundred.

After each judge had in turn announced his scores and with John Hamp and Shaw Taylor giving their top score to Simone and Noel Edmonds and Bryan Blackburn giving top marks to Johnny Hammond the final scoreboard was very close.

		Noel Edmonds	John Hamp	Bryan Blackburn	Shaw Taylor	Total
1	Johnny Hammond	92	82	90	95	359
2	Simone	87	83	88	98	356
3	Our Kid	85	70	89	70	314
4	Cops	66	68	89	90	313
5	Paul & Avis	79	65	88	80	312
6	Chris North & Jill	81	71	86	70	308

So the winner by just three points was comedian Johnny Hammond who booked his place in the series Grand Final in July.

The Viewers Panel disagreed with the professional foursome as they placed Our Kid as their winning act, meaning they would get another chance to return to New Faces, however, it wasn’t until late in series five that we saw Our Kid again.  This was partly due to Liverpool City Council Education Department refusing them licences to appear on a number of shows due to the restrictions on child performer working hours.

The recording of the whole show described above can be viewed on You Tube.

Archive: A copy is held by the BFI – Work – 569994